This year on Halloween, skip the trick-or-treating. Instead, check out these family Halloween party ideas and host a fun family-friendly Halloween party for your friends, family, and neighbors.
Halloween is one of my favorite nights of the year. It’s the one night all year when most of the neighbors throw open the doors to their homes. Being outside with all of the other kids and parents in the neighborhood just having fun just doesn’t happen that often except on Halloween.

But sometimes trick or treating can be a lot especially for younger kids. It can be overwhelming and a little bit scary. So instead of heading out the door for trick or treating, stay home, open up your backyard and throw a family-friendly Halloween party for the entire neighborhood.
Outdoor Family Halloween Party Ideas
Backyard Halloween Party Ideas
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Invitations
For this type of party, invitations are not necessarily needed. The idea is to throw open your backyard, front yard, driveway, or even your garage to your neighbors. If you want invitations, you could use Spooktacular Halloween Place Cards. Just fill in the time and date to invite people over. Let your friends and family who do not live in your neighborhood know you’ll have a party.
Decorations
Decorations can be as simple or extravagant as you want. You can go either fun or scary or do a mix of both with decorations. Maybe decorate the backyard with a fall theme. Then decorate the garage as a haunted house. Use lights, wreaths, pumpkins, and other fun decorations.
This cute printable Happy Halloween bunting is a great way to welcome your guests to the party. It matches the place cards, which could also be used to decorate tables.
Create shirts, posters, and other decorations with Free Cute Ghost SVG. This file also comes in a JPG and PNG so you can easily print it and put in frames to set around the room.
One thing Halloween parties need is great lighting. Candles are the perfect match. Mason jar Halloween luminaries are great as table centerpieces or on the food table. They could also be used to line a walkway or porch stairs.
Food and Drinks
A big batch of homemade chili is perfect for an outdoor Halloween party. Serve it up in disposable bowls and set out toppings like onions, cheese, and corn chips.
The kiddos will love Air Fryer Mummy Dogs served alongside their favorite condiments.
Make Monster Burgers using hamburgers, chicken, or even fish patties. Serve with a veggie tray and potato chips for an easy meal.
If it’s warmer, bottles of water or juice are turned into fun Halloween drinks when you add Fun and Spooky Printable Halloween Bottle Labels to the bottles. Set out a slow cooker full of warm drinks like Caramel Apple Wassail Recipe with Essential Oils or a batch of hot cocoa for a chilly evening.
For dessert, serve candy (of course) and other fun treats like Frankenstein Cookies or Mummy Cookies. You can even package them up in little bags with these cute Halloween Treat Bag Toppers.
Party Activities
There are so many fun ideas for Halloween games. Go with classic games like bobbing for apples in the backyard. Group games like Candy Apple Twister Halloween Party Game will get everyone laughing. If you have a fire or even a candly, take turns telling ghost stories using Ghost Story Prompts.
You could also set up a haunted house in the garage. Use boxes, garbage bags, and fake spider webs to set up an easy little maze through the garage. Play spooky music and have at least one element of surprise to scare people.
Print out some Halloween games for younger kids to do at a table. Have a fun game of Halloween BINGO. Set the games on a table with pens, pencils, and crayons so kids can keep themselves occupied. You could also roll these up and attach pumpkin crayons for trick-or-treaters with food allergies.
This Halloween, think beyond trick or treating and instead stay home and open your backyard, garage, or driveway to your neighbors and friends. Hopefully, the fun will last far beyond Halloween in your neighborhood this year.